Greg Ford - Promises
Here are some indicators you may struggle with destination addiction. You're always in a hurry even when you don't need to be. You always promise that next year will be less busy. Your dream home is always your next home, the next home you plan to buy or build. You don't like your job, but you stay in it 'cause it has good prospects for the future. "I don't value my present, I'm miserable, I don't like it, but you know, it's got good upside so I stay here because maybe someday I'll get there". It says, "You never commit fully to anyone or anything, in case someone or something better comes along. You hope that the next big success will finally make you happy. You always think you should be further ahead than where you are now, you just live with that. You have so many forecasts, projections and targets that you never enjoy your life now".
This is important that we hold these things in tension, because there is some value to vision, right, vision, future oriented. The future is not all bad and thinking about the future isn't bad, right. We don't wanna be so short sighted we only think about today. So, it's the tension between awareness of the future and vision for the future, right, the Bible says, "Without vision, people perish". Hope itself, hope is future oriented. You're having a really bad season, you go, you know, "Tomorrow's gonna be different, tomorrow's gonna get better, I'm believing for better things". Like, there're some good things about the future, but if all we do is live in the future and we keep believing "That if I get that I'll be happy".
That becomes this, and now there's a new that, and you just keep going back to this, but now there's a new that, and I just keep buying that and that turns into this, and I never find fulfillment and joy. It's an addiction to what I don't have or where I'm not present. And so, we're gonna talk about that. I wanna start today and I'm actually gonna talk about, when we think about destination, I'm gonna talk about the promises of God, the promises of God. Promise, when I say promise we tend to think future oriented, but I wanna talk about promises that we have now in the present, instead of just thinking about promises as they're related to the future. In the Bible, there's over 3,000 promises.
Some of the promises are specific promises, they were given to specific people, for a specific time, for a specific reason and they don't necessarily translate into all people for all time. Then there are some other promises that the Holy Spirit gives to all believers in every single age, but how do I know the difference when I'm reading through my Bible, because if you don't, I've seen some folks get really confused and I've seen some people get really, really hurt. I have somebody very close to me, who when he was a teenager, was in church and in his youth group, there was one of his friends develop leukemia. And his parents were reading in their Bible, and they were reading about healing and they believed in their prayer time that God had promised them that their son was gonna be healed and he was not going to die of leukemia.
And so, with true sincerity and boldness they stood up full of faith, and they told the church, and they told everybody who would listen, "God has promised us our son will not die". And so, the youth group prayed for him, and they were all believing, and they were all full of confidence and sure enough, he did die. And when he died at his funeral, they were still so convinced that God had promised them he wouldn't die, that at his funeral with the casket open, they had the youth group and the church gathered around an open casket trying to pray the boy back to life. And it did not happen, and my friend who is now a grown man, at 13-years-old was so devastated and scarred and confused by the situation that he did like this, "I'm out". What he did was he threw the baby out with the bath water, because he said, "All this promised stuff is hocus pocus".
Now, I don't think there are any villains in this story, I couldn't blame any parent who would believe, and who would pray, and who would hope and everybody's trying to do the right thing, but I think within this we have to come at this with some intelligence and to be able to really understand what the Bible is saying and doing. And I think when it comes to like impressions, okay, what is God telling me. I think we have to hold that a bit loosely otherwise, sometimes it's hard for us to know the difference between what the spirit is saying and my flesh is saying. Sometimes, I want something so bad it can be confirmation bias, and I'm looking for something and so I see it in everything.
Alright, I'mma put on my teaching hat real quick just to talk about what are promises, Old Testament, New Testament, 'cause these over 3,000 promises are scattered throughout the old and New Testament. I'm gonna help you to be able to read it a little clear, more clearly. Alright, thing about this, God creates the heavens and the earth, Genesis, creates human beings in his image and God begins to, a relationship with people, begins a partnership with people, we work together. And yet, you know, people made a mess of the world, evil entered the world, the world got so bad and so evil that actually in the book of Genesis, God decided to cleanse the earth.
And so, we know the story of Noah, one family goes in the boat, all these animals, and a flood destroys everything. And at the end of that God makes a covenant, a covenant. It's one of four covenants we have in the Old Testament. And a covenant is, God says, "I'll make a promise if you make a commitment". I make a promise, you make a commitment. So, the first covenant is with Noah, and this is an interesting one, this is in Genesis 9, Genesis 9. This is the only covenant that God makes where he doesn't ask for any commitment in return, he just makes a promise. And the promise he makes is, he says, "I'll never do that again. I'm never gonna, no matter how wicked y'all get, no matter how evil you get, no matter what, I'm not gonna wipe the earth out with a flood, I'm not gonna do that again."
So, he makes a covenant with Noah. The second one that we have is with Abraham and this shows up in Genesis 17, the Abrahamic covenant. And he says to Abraham, "I'm gonna make a great nation out of you". Okay. Now, the population starts to grow again, and what happens? Human beings, flesh, free will, all that stuff creates chaos, and he says, "I'm gonna take you, Abraham and I'm gonna take a small group of people. And I'm going to introduce my kingdom into the world and I'm gonna ultimately bless and I'm going to extend my kingdom to the ends of the earth to all people, but I'm going to start with this small group of people and I'm starting with one person. Abraham, I'm gonna start with you". And he said, "Your family will be a great nation, that's my promise".
The second thing though, the commitment I need from you is, I want you to trust me. I want you to raise your family and the people around you to follow me, and to worship me, and to make me your God. Okay, and so, to obey and to bring justice and goodness into the world, so that's Abraham. God fulfills his commitment, Abraham's family generationally turns into 12 tribes, which become a nation. So, then God makes a covenant with the nation, with the nation of Israel and this is in Exodus 19-24, okay, this is Moses and the Ten Commandments. But it's not just Ten Commandments, it's 613 laws and God makes a covenant now, with the nation and says, "Hey, I will bring prosperity and protection to you. You're gonna be my representative to the world".
He said, "But what I want you to do is keep my law". Well, you know what happened, okay. There was lots of hits and lots of misses, more misses than hits. And so, it became very complicated because as the nation would rebel against God or would turn from God, or forget about God, then God would say, "Okay, you can have, go ahead have your life. Do it your way". Chaos would ensue, they would pray, he would, okay. So, it's just this sorta cycle of them breaking their promise and God restoring them.
And then, eventually God makes a covenant, his fourth covenant with David and this is in 2 Samuel 7. And he says, "David, here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna extend my covenant to everybody and the Messiah is gonna come through your line. It's gonna be one of your grandkids, great grandkids. It's gonna come through your line and it will all be restored". Which then leads us to Jesus, right? So, up until this Jesus has made, or God has made covenants with nations, and people. And the covenants were good, but the problem is the flesh of human beings. And this is when you read in the New Testament, you read in the book of Hebrews, you read in the book of Romans, it talks about, "Hey, the law wasn't bad. Okay, the rules weren't bad, it was us, our flesh, okay, and all this".
And so, he says, "So this is why Jesus came now", in the new covenant, new covenant. Jesus shows up and Jesus now is the fulfillment of these covenants. He comes, he's a child of Abraham, he's an Israelite, he's from the line of David and he's the one who did not sin, did not mess it up. And Jesus as he's living, okay, he's ushering in a new covenant, but he says something peculiar in John 14, he says, "Listen, I know I'm here, I'm the Messiah, I'm doing all this". He said, "But it's actually gonna be better when I leave". It's like, why? Well, I know he's doing miracles and he's doing things and he's changing things and making things better, but he said, "It's gonna be better because ultimately there will be a new covenant and I'm gonna send this Holy Spirit to live inside of you, and then it's gonna go to the ends of the earth. So, now it will be available to all people".
And then of course, Paul writes in Romans 8:11, "The spirit that raised Christ from the dead, that spirit lives inside of you". So, now, we operate, we live in the new covenant, not within the old covenant. Well, what does that mean? Look what it says in 2 Corinthians 1:20, what this has to do with promises. It says, "For all of God's promises, covenant promises, have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding 'yes'! And through Christ, our 'amen' which means 'yes,' and ascends to God for his glory".
So, the promises that we have, okay, a lot of these, they are in the Old Testament were for a group of people at a time. When you're now reading through the New Testament, and you're reading the gospels, and you're reading the writings of Paul, and James, and Peter, and John, and you're reading these guys, you wanna look, as you're looking at promises, you're going, "What can I build my life on"? The promises that you wanna look are things that are told to us like, this is true through Jesus, because it's through Jesus who now has sent the Holy Spirit to live inside, that spirit lives in you. It's through Jesus that these promises are rock solid, that these promises are fulfilled in you. That's what you wanna look for.
So, what I'm gonna give you today are four promises. These aren't the only four, in fact, I pray you go on a quest into your testament, into your new covenant, and looking for promises that are fulfilled through Jesus, that you can have through the power of the Holy Spirit, right now, that you look for those. But I'm gonna give you four today, that you can stand on and count on, alright. We don't have to wait, destination, what's God gonna do? When he'll do it right now. Okay, four promises we have in Christ. The first one is this, Christ's love strengthens you. I'm talking today to people who would be honest enough with yourself to say, "I feel weak". That's a tough one to admit.
"I feel weak, I feel weak emotionally, I feel weak physically. I know what I'm supposed to do, I just don't know if I can do it". It might be weak in that, "I have an endeavor or something in front of me that I've never done before. And the unknown is terrifying and I feel weak". Or it could be the opposite, it could be, "I've been doing this thing so much, so many times. I've forgiven so many times, I've showed up so many times, I've helped so, I've tried so many, I've done it so many, I'm so familiar, I just don't know if I have any more in me". You're feeling weak. Maybe you have a problem in front of you you can't figure out, it's a conundrum. "I don't know where to go, I've been asking for help, nobody can help me".
You're feeling weak. We have a promise that Christ's love will bring you strength. Look at this, it says in Ephesians 3:16-19, Paul says, "I pray that from his glorious," look at this, "Unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his spirit". Verse 17, "Then Christ," there we go don't miss that, Christ, right, Christ, "In Christ all of God's promises are fulfilled". So, it says, "Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. And your roots will grow down into God's love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, and how long, and how high, and how deep his love is".
As intimidating as your situation is, as intimidated as you may feel, as feeble and anemic as you may feel, he said, "I pray that in that feeling you would stand on a promise, that you would have a Revelation of how wide, and how high, and how deep his love and his strength would fortify you through his love. That you would stand on that, that you would be undergirded, that you would have a foundation". It says in verse 19, "May you experience the love of Christ," not just having a head knowledge, but to be hit a wave of the love of Christ, "Though it's too great to fully understand". He said, look at this, "Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God".
What do you do when you're powerless, is you stand on a promise. You stand on a promise that Christ's love strengthens you. The same guy that wrote this said, "I had been crucified with Christ, nevertheless, I live. Yet, not i, but Christ lives in me". Then he said, "This life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who love me and gave himself for me". Listen, there is strength available to you, the strength that you don't have in your own flesh. I don't have the will power for it, I don't have the determination, I don't enough, I'm fresh out of grit. I'm full of quit and out of grit. I'm out, where am I gonna find strength?
"Greater is he who is in you, than he who is in the world. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me," that includes whatever faces you, whatever is next, to be able to get through this moment. That's a promise, that wasn't for somebody else, that's for you. That wasn't a different era or a different time, Paul brings it right into the present, he said, "The Holy Spirit gives this to you right now, God's love strengthens you". If you're weak today, you don't have to stay weak today, God wants to fill you with his strength, he wants to fill you with his love. Number two, nothing can separate you from him. Nothing can separate you from him. I'm talking to somebody today who feels completely and totally isolated, completely alone.
Romans 8:38-39, Paul says, "I'm convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither fears for today, or worry about tomorrow. Not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love". Verse 39, look at this, "No power in the sky above or earth beneath-indeed," look, "Nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us the love of God that is revealed," oop, there he is, the one in whom all promises are fulfilled, "Is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord".
Nothing can separate you from him, you are not alone. God is committed to you. He's committed to you. He's with you. He's made up his mind about you. Jesus is perfect theology, he's perfect theology, nothing can separate you from him. You know, we use a term in church often, "Far from God". "Yeah, man we're here for people who are far from God". Nobody's far from God. What do you mean far from God? What 'cause you sinned a lot? 'cause you're a heathen? Is that what happens? Is that how it works? God's here and every time you sin you get a little further from God and if you sin too much, you get so far from God, you just could never cover the gap? Is that what you think?
That's horrible theology, wretched, terrible. Unlearn it, please, right now. It's not true. Nobody's far form God, he's right there, right there. He's right there. He's a whisper away, man. He's closer than a brother, he's right there. You see, the guy who's close to me, who at 13 years old got really disillusioned, really confused and decided to take his own path and meander, and decided to go down some addictions and decided to do what he thought was running from God, he didn't create distance, God was right there.
Have you ever read the parable of the lost sheep? Shepherd can hunt, he knows where his sheep are. "My sheep knows my voice, I'm right there". Nothing can separate you. He's committed to you, he's with you, and no matter how far you might think you are, how much distance you think there is, he's right there. He's a thought, a whisper away. You don't have to go climb up a hill to find him, he climbed up a hill to find you. Nothing has separate you. Number three, his peace is available right now. His peace is available right now. Philippians 4:6-7 says, "Don't worry about anything, instead, pray about everything".
Okay, alright. So, it's not saying that you're never gonna have worry or stress, it's saying, here's what you do with your worry and stress. Pray about everything, stand on promises, right. Here's the promise. It said, "Tell God what you need, thank him for what he's done," and here comes the promise, "Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds everything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live," oop, there he is again, "In Christ Jesus".
All the promises have been fulfilled in Christ Jesus, that he said, "No matter what you're going through, there is a supernatural, beyond logic, peace that will show up and will guard your heart". The same guy that wrote all of this, the apostle Paul, in trying to help us understand promises, there's an interesting text in 2 Corinthians 1, so right before he says that, "All of God's promises are fulfilled in Christ Jesus," he talks about his personal experience, okay.
So, if you go read 2 Corinthians 1:8, it says, he said, "I thought you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia". He said, "We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure". Anybody ever been there in that spot? Okay, he said, "If you've been there, he's been there too". He said, "I thought, beyond my ability to endure," and he said, "We thought we would never live through it. In fact," look at this, "We expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead. And he did rescue us from mortal danger, and he will rescue us again. We have placed our confidence in him," look at this, "And he will continue to rescue us".
Now, here's what's interesting, in that season of Paul's life, God still had work for him to do, he had life left to live, but he's at these near death experiences and he said, "As the near death experience goes the first one, I thought I was gonna die. I expected to die, but we lived and with that I was granted a wave of peace through the Holy Spirit". And so, he said, and from there he goes, "I believe God's gonna keep rescuing me". Now, here's what we know, let's keep going, let's not end there, 'cause he didn't ride off into the sunset and live happily ever after, he actually ended up going to prison and dying a martyr's death in prison. But what's really interesting is if you read 2 Timothy, which is the last book he wrote, and you read Paul's language you can feel his peace. And he even knows it's about to be done.
You see, 2 Corinthians he's going, "This one ain't gon' take me out, this one ain't gonna take me out, God's gonna spare me from that". When he gets to 2 Timothy he says, "I've been poured out like a drink offering. I've been poured out like a drink offering, but I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded, he's able to keep", you see what I'm saying? He had peace when he had time left. He had peace, "God's gonna deliver me," when it came to the... He had peace that the closure was coming. And what I wanna tell you is, God can grant you and will grant you, you have the promise, that you will have supernatural peace that passes all understanding to guard your heart and mind whatever season you're in.
Some seasons are seasons of closure. Sometimes people, and things, and ideas, and dreams and businesses, and brothers, and sisters, and spouses die. Sometimes, we lose things. In every season, regardless of how tumultuous it might be, how emotional it might be, the promise we have is that the peace that passes all understanding will guard your heart and mind, as you live how? In Christ Jesus. It's in Christ Jesus, all the promises are fulfilled.